A detailed accounting of what happened in the Somali reconciliation talks in Istanbul, in case you care about this. The issue is whether there will be a federal republic with several 'states', or a series of smaller nation states (Mogadishu, Jubaland, Puntland, and Somaliland) with no formal union.
If I was a Somali I'd go for the "no formal union" option. At least that way you've got one or two chances out of four.
I kinda have a soft spot for the Punties.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/14/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
For those not in the know, this is a Big Deal. The fact it got this far is a Blessing. I look forward to more "self determination" in the region. It may be their saving grace to work this out this way. And only They may determine the outcome.
[FridayTimes] There are those who support the Army in Egypt and those who support the Moslem Brüderbund. But what is the reasoning of those who support neither?
CAIRO: If there's anything shared by people across the political divide in Egypt these days, it's the obsession with the news. Political developments start rolling in later in the day and go on well into the night.
Last week's protests marked the beginning of a voluntary semi-house arrest for me. I jokingly affiliated myself with "hizb al balcona", or 'the party of the balcony', a play on "hizb al kanaba", or 'the party of the couch', which is what Egyptians call those who don't take part in protests but prefer to watch them on TV. My satellite dish was acting up that day and I couldn't watch most channels, so I ended up spending a lot of time on the balcony and trying to gauge the mood in Tahrir Square, which is about a mile away from my apartment.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
07/14/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
how the Army treats the Moslem Brüderbund now, as this is how everyone with a differing opinion will be treated later
Never heard the expression "tolerance is a two way street."?
Like entropy, the diminishing returns of technology never sleep. The hubristic techno-narcissism of the day, as seen in mankind's efforts to fake-out the universe, will eventually get our one-way ticket to Palookaville punched. Perhaps there's such a thing as being too cool after all. I don't consider being "cool" a good thing. Reptiles are cool. Tortoises and gila monsters and guys wearing shades at night are all in the same phylum or whatever. Technology's returns aren't diminishing. If you read science fiction as a kid, go back and read your favorite stories now. 2013 is so different from 1993 as to be almost a different world.
The trick so far has been to create massive inflation, export the effects of it to other trading partners, and end up with a lot more money here in the USA, or the illusion of more money. Well, loans, for houses, cars, and college tuitions. In a word: debt. Let's call it "Rainman Economics," because it begins to resemble the behavior of a severely autistic human being who performs a small range of obsessive actions over and over and over, often centered on numbers. Rainman Economics is the policy of the Federal Reserve and, indirectly, the government under Mr. Obama. They're very Keynesian. You don't have to refer to a minor movie hit that most people have forgotten or are trying to forget.
The suave and genial Champ just doesn't know what's going on -- despite being surrounded by minions with briefing folders, sages and vizeers, Viziers. Get the spelling right.
quantitative augurers neck-deep in mathematical goat entrails, and (always) the lone, silent soldier toting the dire nuclear "football." Champ doesn't know that the universe has launched us on a journey to a place beyond techno-industrialism -- and it's not Ray Kurzweil's infinity of orgasms. I'm not too sure what orgasm have to do with the world. I think we're entirely too fixated on them. Why spend 23 hours and 40 minutes a day every day thinking about an activity that takes, when you take your time, twenty minutes? Yeah, yeah. It's important. If it was all that important trilobites would still be ruling the world, because they could do it, too.
It's a place where no ring-tones are heard and not so much as a stretch-mark of the Kardashians remains to be found. Far more viziers than sages but I digress. Read on please.
[Dawn] IF the May 2, 2011 raid that killed the late Osama bin Laden ... who is now sometimes referred to as Mister Bones... (OBL) was the lash that shredded our defence establishment's pride, then the leaked Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... Commission report is the salt rubbed into those wounds. I'd say "when all are guilty everybody is." Perhaps Pakistain should think about paying people from Estonia or the Czech Republic or Norway to come and govern them. They're incapable of governing themselves. And definitely fire all their military and hire Fiji Islanders or Samoans or somebody like that to handle their defense.
When I thought of writing about the report, I dreaded the prospect of ploughing through 337 pages of turgid bureaucratic prose. So I was pleasantly surprised by the uncluttered, succinct style and the clarity of the approach. The Commission is to be applauded for its hard work and diligence.
Writing about the American commando raid a couple of days after the event, I wrote: "The space between an admission of gross incompetence or of complicity in a major crime is full of humiliation and pain."
How much pain and humiliation? The report is full of collective breast-beating about the comprehensive political, intelligence and military failures that surrounded that shameful episode.
Witness after witness appearing before the Commission, from the director general of the ISI to the station house officer in Abbottabad, have lamented over the breakdown in governance.
In fact, the report uses a term I was unfamiliar with: Governance Implosion Syndrome (to characterise the catalogue of mistakes that prevented any agency from first detecting the presence of OBL in Pakistain for nearly 10 years, and then intercepting the American incursion that ended his life.
Apart from this litany of complaints about the collapse of the system, two other themes run through the report. One is the complete lack of coordination between military and civil agencies and departments. This is especially true of the ISI and the police: at OBL's house, the local cops were told to stay out while the ISI conducted the investigation. Thus, no FIR for the crime was registered.
The second is the shared anguish among all the witnesses from the armed forces, including the ISI, over what was perceived as an American betrayal. 'But we were allies!' they seem to wail in unison. However, denial ain't just a river in Egypt... going by the edgy relationship between the two countries, this is a bit naïve.
The members of the Commission have expressed surprise over the fact that OBL's house was built in contravention of various building regulations. They have also stated that the land was illegally bought against an ID card belonging to somebody else.
Clearly, these upright people have not had to deal with the lower echelons of the bureaucracy where everything can be fixed for money. In fact, half of the houses and high-rises in Pakistain do not comply with building regulations.
As I read on, I was often struck by the wide-ranging criticism of virtually every aspect of Pak society. From the "ruling elites and the rentier classes" to military-civil relations, there is little that does not come under the Commission's cosh.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... is expected to leave Pakistain to stay abroad for an indefinite period after his retirement on September 8.
Sources close to the president told Dawn.com that his friends advised him to stay away given serious threats to his life. President Zardari has already told his associates he will not contest the next presidential elections. "And why should he? We are not even having a candidate to run for the office of president," presidential spokesperson Senator Farhatullah Babar said.
The balance of power drastically shifted in favor of Pakistain Moslem League-Nawaz (PML-N) after the May 11 general elections. Under Article 41(3), the Electoral College for the president comprises the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. The PML-N enjoys an absolute majority in the electoral college.
Pakistain Peoples Party (PPP) MPA Sharmila Faruqi expressed ignorance about the future plans of the president. The presidential spokesperson did not respond to queries about the speculation either.
However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... according to sources, the liquidation of the president's chief security officer Bilal Sheikh was a wake up call for President Zardari and his family -- once the security layers around them are not intact post-retirement, they could be in an extremely vulnerable position.
Sheikh himself is not the first high profile security officer of the Bhutto himself to be killed. Previously, Khalid Shahenshah, the Bilawal House chief security officer, was killed outside his residence in 2008. In 2011, Imran Jangi, another prominent security officer of the Bhutto family was bumped off in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
For many, it seems like a natural conclusion. "Look at the president's public appearances in the last five years. Very rare. He prefers to live in his bunker. Now after losing all presidential privileges he will not stay in Pakistain," commented a former People's Party (PPP) leader who requested not to be named.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/14/2013 00:00 ||
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[ArutzSheva] On Obama's post-election March 2013 trip to Israel, he a privately laid out his vision of the Middle East to Netanyahu's inner circle. It should send shivers up Israel and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's respective spines.
Realistic or severely overexcited? You, dear Reader, must judge for yourself.
On March 21, 2011, two full days after US President B.O. launched 112 tomahawk missiles against Libya without notification to, or approval of, the US Congress, Obama finally notified Congress in "efforts to keep the Congress fully informed, consistent with the War Powers Resolution."
July 12, 2013 is a month after Obama promised heavy weapons anti-Assad rebels to check the Iranian-armed Hizbullah in Syria, no U.S. arms have remotely reached the Syrian rebels.
Iraq claims it is "unable" to stop its neighbor Iran from transferring weapons to Syria through its airspace. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in a Asharq al-Awsat interview published today July 13, 2013:
"We reject and condemn the transfer of weapons through our airspace and we will inform the Iranian side of that. But we do not have the ability to stop it," he said. "If you imagine these flights breach United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Security Council resolutions banning weapons imports and exports from Iran, I invite you to help us."
The same Obama who bombed Libya without informing Congress is now, in the face of Iran's military re-supply of Assad, seemingly impotent to push a few 5k range anti-tank weapons through Congress to the anti-Assad rebels. Such short, but powerful weapons would surely eviscerate Assad's northward supply-line from Homs to Aleppo, without posing a danger to Israel.
Obama called King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah ... Fifth out of 37 sons of King Abdulaziz to ascend to the throne. He is, after his half-brothers Bandar and Musa'id, the third eldest of the living sons of Abdul Aziz ibn Saud. Abdullah's mother is from the Rashid clan, longtime rivals of the Saud. He has 6 sons and 15 daughters and about $20 billion. His youngest son is just seven years old... , and emphasized "the United States' continued commitment to provide support to the Syrian Opposition Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to strengthen the opposition." Yes, yes, Obama will "continue" his policy of commitment to Syria, and continue to fail to deliver so much as a single bullet to the Syrian rebels.
The only anti-Assad action Obama actually took was to have "three unnamed U.S. officials" (not one, but three officials) specifically name Israel as the guilty party that destroyed the Russian-made Yakhont anti-ship missiles at Latakia last Thursday.
So, not only does Obama prevaricate to the Saudis, he also exposes the possible covert Israeli anti-Assad military blows. Why is Obama dissembling to and harming America's only two remaining Middle East allies? Is Obama publicly goading Assad to launch a retaliatory strike at Israel by embarrassing him with Israel's Latakia strike?
It's simple. Obama doesn't see a Middle East with either Israel or Saudi Arabia. Is this a radical statement? In the most under-reported news story of the Middle East, on Obama's post-election March 2013 trip to Israel, Obama privately laid out his vision of a Saudi Arabia-less Middle East to Netanyahu's inner circle. It was reported in the World Tribune that:
"Diplomatic sources said President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... has proposed an alliance by [as of then Moslem Brüderbund] Egypt, Iran and Turkey."
"Obama was telling [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu that these countries would stabilize the region and should be supported," a source said.
The sources, familiar with Obama's discussions during his March 20-22 visit to Israel, said Egypt, Iran and Turkey represented the new Musselmen powers that would determine the future of the Middle East. They said Iran's alliance with Sunni Egypt and Turkey would avoid a nuclear arms race despite concern over Teheran's uranium enrichment program."
Where is Saudi Arabia in Obama's "future of the Middle East"? In the dustbin of history, taken over by Iran, that's where! And now the Saudis know it. The Saudi appear to have caught on to Obama's "bait and switch" tactics and have decided to strike back by funding the toppling of the Moslem Brüderbund government of Egypt.
And where is Israel in Obama's "future of the Middle East ", with an Islamist Egypt, Islamist Turkey, and an Islamist Iran all working together? Would such an Islamist Triumvirate "stabilize the region"? Would such three-way Islamist entente "avoid a nuclear arm's race"?
How long did Poland last when Hitler and Stalin agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop/Nazi-Soviet "Non-Aggression" Pact? It was finalized on August 23, 1939, and Hitler invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. That makes 8 days. An Egypt-Iran-Turkey alliance would bring about Israel's annihilation as surely and quickly as the Germany-Soviet pact brought about Poland's occupation.
Israel has no place in Obama's "vision" of a proto-Caliphate three-way Islamist vise with Israel as its common and sole enemy. Having heard Obama personally argue for the Islamist Triple Entente on Obama's signature trip to Israel, Israeli officials would have to be certifiable to believe Obama would ever bomb Iran or defend Israel from an adjoining Paleostinian Arab State.
Obama's Islamist "Trifecta" dream of a "United States of Islam" superpower is a genocidal Anaconda nightmare to Israel and Saudi Arabia. Israelis have heard it straight from the horse's mouth. Obama will, if he gets his way, wipe Saudi Arabia off the map, and squeeze Israel to death.
Obama is reversing Churchill's Middle East colonization which divided the Musselmens, and was meant to enable Great Britannia to to conquer the Musselmens. Instead, the anti-colonialist Obama wants the US to unify the Musselmens, which will cause the United States to lose to the Musselmen world. It seems as though Obama is planning to be the Che-Mao-Bolivar-Saladin of what his Middle Eastern friends intend to create: the world's soon-to-be-established Musselmen Caliphate.
#1
Not nightmares, we've lived with USA's ME fantasies since 1948. We're adapted. And we put our faith in our Lord (who put the means to deal with out enemies---any of them, into our hands).
[Ynet] If Paleostinians are going to insist on preconditions, why can't Israel set some of its own?
To date the efforts of US Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... have failed to produce an agreement leading to resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Paleostinians. In spite of comments such as "real progress has been made," the refusal of the Paleostinians to abandon their preconditions remains the major obstacle preventing a breakthrough.
The Paleostinians demand Israel stop all home construction on land they claim as their state. Israel must also relinquish all territory under their authority since being forced to fight a defensive war in 1967. This includes eastern Jerusalem which is the holiest place on earth for the Jewish people. Plus, numerous Paleostinians must be released from prison, many of whom have blood on their hands.
For his part the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... continues to reaffirm his commitment to preconditions. In an interview published recently in Al-Hayat, referring to '67 borders, he said "we consider any settlement after 1967 illegal." Regarding Jerusalem he said "....if it is not the capital of Paleostine, there will be no solution."
If the Paleostinians are going to insist on preconditions, why can't Israel have some of its own? C'mon, what's fair is fair, right?
Thus, Mr. Abbas I submit the following preconditions which must be met before Israel is willing to sit face to face with you:
The first and most important precondition is for you to drop all your preconditions, period. Such demands are incongruous with all known acceptable protocol of good faith negotiations and promote a disingenuous agenda. Both sides should come to the table equally balanced without preconditions, prepared to negotiate all issues.
However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... if you insist on sticking to your preconditions, I invite you to entertain Israel's list. They are intended to render negotiations meaningless, which is precisely what your goal appears to be.
For starters you must accept Israel's right to exist as the sovereign national homeland of the Jewish people. Israeli leaders have repeatedly acknowledged their commitment to a Paleostinian state, and two states for two peoples. The least you could do is reciprocate by accepting Israel's right to exist.
Next, stop telling your Arab brethren taking Jerusalem away from Israel is an "Islamic obligation." Would you expect Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... to give Mecca or Medina away? If Mohammedans are allowed to have their two holiest cities, why can't the Jews have the one city which has been the center of Jewish life for 4,000 years? In case you forgot, Jerusalem's existence as such predates Islam by 2,700 years. However you don't seem to allow facts to alter your agenda.
Additionally, please contact the various gunnies groups such as Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,, Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... , PFLP, Hezbollah, PLO, plus your own group Fatah, and have all the language removed from their respective charters requiring the destruction of Israel and elimination of the Jewish people. I realize you may not be able to convince the other groups to make this potentially humiliating gesture. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... forgive me for suggesting that Israel's leaders might be just a little skeptical of your sincerity when the founding charter of the political part of which you are head, requires the destruction of the country you claim to want peace with.
Let's move to the websites of these same groups. Each of them, including your Fatah party show Paleostine covering the entire area of land Israel rests upon. How about suggesting the webmasters do a little editing to reflect Israel in fact does exist? The entire world is aware of this, so having these websites reflect reality would demonstrate a pragmatic approach to coexistence.... if this is indeed something you favor.
It also wouldn't be a bad idea to stop naming parks and other public places after gunnies who murdered innocent Israeli civilians. Maybe it hasn't occurred to you that glorifying murderers by calling them "heroes" and "deaders" gives the average Israeli the impression you consider every one of them a legitimate target. That's not exactly the type of message someone claiming to want coexistence should be sending.
Once all these preconditions have been met, it will create a balanced atmosphere at the negotiating table between you and Israel. Oh, did I mention if either side agrees to the other's preconditions, there won't be much point of coming to the negotiating table? However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... since your preconditions are designed to prevent actual negotiations you seem to know this already.
A final thought: One of the reasons Israel should have its own list of preconditions is it may prove to be an effective way of demonstrating the absurdity of your preconditions. Mr. Abbas. You may get so frustrated it could cause you to drop your preconditions and meet without them. Then again I ask myself what are the odds this might happen? Is the moon made of cheese?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Dawn] IF the May 2, 2011 raid that killed 
President Asif Ali 
King of the Arabians, Sheikh of the Burning Sands Abdullah
